Prime Factors
'' |image= |series= |production=110 |producer(s)= |story= David R. George III & Eric A. Stillwell |script=Michael Perricone & Greg Elliot |director=Les Landau |imdbref=tt0708948 |guests=Josh Clark as Lt. Joe Carey, Martha Hackett as Seska, Ronald Guttman as Gath, Andrew Hill Newman as Jaret Otel, Yvonne Suhor as Eudana |previous_production=Emanations |next_production=State of Flux |episode=VGR S01E10 |airdate=20 March 1995 |previous_release=Emanations |next_release=State of Flux |story_date(s)=48642.5 (2371) |previous_story=Emanations |next_story=State of Flux }} =Summary= The crew beams aboard Gath Labin, a representative from Sikaris, a planet known for its outstanding hospitality. Gath invites the weary travellers to take a break from their duties on his homeworld. Knowing shore leave would do the crew good, Janeway orders Voyager to follow Gath back to Sikaris, where residents welcome them with open arms. The Sikarians love to hear stories of other places and travels from visitors, and following Gath and Janeway's lead, the groups begin mixing. Kim is soon telling the Voyager story to a young woman named Eudana, who suggests they go somewhere else to be alone. Little does he realize she means a planet more than 40,000 light years away, thanks to the Sikarians' spatial trajector — technology which can "fold" space to allow long-distance travel in an instant. The Voyager crew are overjoyed, but then learn the Sikarians have their own prime directive which prevents them from sharing their technology with less advanced races. One Sikarian, Jaret Otel, offers Kim the technology in exchange for more Voyager "stories." But Janeway feels it's unethical to accept the technology from anyone other than Gath, the Sikarian leader. She decides to ask him to send Voyager as far as he can in exchange for the "stories." He refuses but invites Janeway and the crew to stay on his planet instead. The meeting ends on a sour note, and Janeway realizes they are no longer welcome. After that, B'Elanna, Carey and Seska conspire to ignore Janeway's orders and take Jaret's offer — and are shocked when Tuvok shows up to make the exchange and sacrifice his career if caught. The gamble is for naught when they find the trajector is incompatible with Federation technology. Janeway finds herself reprimanding not only her new hot-headed Engineer but her old and logical friend Tuvok. The Vulcan explains he sacrificed his own career so the crew could get home without Janeway compromising her ethics, but she rejects that "logic" and asks her confidant to never let her down again. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, April 23, 1999 - 7:31 am: Amazingly the Sikarian trajector unit just happens to have two doohickeys that naturally fit into a Federation Engineering console. constanze on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 4:21 am: Didn't Seska talk about an interface? Maybe the part where they stick the trajector unit is made of some soft material which shapes itself to fit any form, and then an individual interface is programmed? (It would make sense to assume that Starfleet has some way of interfacing alien technology, and not assume everything always fits! Surely they have learned sth. from history on earth alone?) KAM on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 1:16 am: Sounds familiar, but IIRC (and it's been years since I've seen this story) when the unit is produced it has two prongs on it that just insert into an apparently unaltered console.Mcb359 on Friday, July 13, 2018 - 16:50: The console was obviously altered to include the interface for the device as we never saw that slot before or after this episode # David Hensley on Sunday, July 18, 1999 - 9:34 am: The Sikarians have technology that can shave, say, 40-some years off of Voyager's trip. It is incompatible with Federation technology, so we can't use it to transport the ship. Fine. Why not just transport the crew to a planet closer to home?!? (Setting Voyager for self-destruct first, so no Sikarians can get their hands on Federation technology..) Surely some friendly race would give Janeway a old dilithium tanker that's been out of use for a couple of decades! B'Elanna could whip that baby back into shape in no time flat! Of course, Star Trek: Uk'Nal Cargo Vessel doesn't have the same ring to it… Plantman on Thursday, August 24, 2000 - 12:12 pm: The Sikarans did not want Voyager to leave so they would probably be hesitant to let them use the super transporter to transport the entire crew. Also, what are the odds that a friendly alien species would happen to come to this particular planet that they would transport to and they would happen to be so friendly that they would just give a ship to Janeway. Also again, a freighter would never stand a 30 year voyage to the Federation. Remember how the Equinox (a science vessel) looked after 5 years. Finally, Holodoc would have to stay behind! Category:Episodes Category:Voyager